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Student Loan Exit Process / Repaying Your Loans

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Upcoming J.D. and LL.M. graduates who have received student loans while attending Cardozo and/or any other pervious school should review all of the information below and complete all of the required steps. Please contact the Office of Student Finance if you have any questions.

Student Loan Exit Counseling

Step 1: Complete the mandatory online Exit Counseling session for federal student loans (Stafford and Graduate PLUS) on the Department of Education's website: www.studentloans.gov. This online Exit Counseling is REQUIRED by the Department of Education for any student who has received federal student loans while attending this instiution and is about to graduate OR fall below "half-time" status (less than 6 credits per semester) OR withdraw from the institution. Complete this step BEFORE graduating/dropping below "half-time"/withdrawing.

Step 2: Complete a paper Exit Counseling packet for the Cardozo YU Loan. This step only applies to students who have received Cardozo YU Loans. Students who have not received this loan can skip this step. Recipients of this loan will be notified by the Office of Student Finance prior to graduation in order to complete the paper Exit Counseling packet. This cannot be completed online.

Step 3: Create a comprehensive list detailing ALL of your student loans. This list should include every loan type (ex. Stafford, Graduate PLUS, YU Loan, etc.), who the federal servicer is for each loan, and the amount. You will absolutely need to account for every loan! Please take the following steps to organize:

Log onto www.nslds.ed.gov to review a detailed list of very every itemized federa loan that you have received.

Contact Cardozo's Office of Student Finance and/or the financial aid office at any previous school to recieve a detailed print out of all your loans.

Step 4: Attend an Exit Counseling Session. Group sessions are provided to exiting students usually toward the end of each semester. Angel / e-mail notifications are sent to the student body.

Step 5: Set up a one-on-one Exit Counseling meeting with the Director of Student Finance. The Director will reivew, in detail, your student loan history and repayment options. Angel / e-mail notifications are sent to the student body about appointment scheduling.

Step 6: Familiarize yourself with the variety of student loan repayment and forgiveness programs. It's important to chose the repayment plan that best works you. Student loan borrowers are not relegated to one repayment plan option. You will have options! Please visit the following websites for repayment and forgiveness details:

Repaying Your Loans

There are many important factors that determine a student loan borrower's repayment options. These factors may include: total loan debt, type of loan debt, career choice, employer (public sector), income, and family, to name a few. These factor may change over time, and could substantially affect how a borrower's repayment options and choices. Carefully read through each section below. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Office of Student Finance.

Step 2: Contact all of your studen loan servicers to determine your repayment start date. Please Note: Eligible student loan borrower's should receive an automatic 6 month grace following around graduaton (following the date of separation, which is usually by the official last day of the semester). Which means, you should not officially enter repayment until approximately 6 months following graduation. If the grace period on any loans was previously used, then you may not be eligible for the grace on some of your loans. For example, if you have undergraduate loans, you may have used some or all of the grace prior to attending Cardozo. In this scenerio, you would enter repayment on those loans sooner following graduation. It's important to check directly with your loan servicer(s) for this information. DO NOT ASSUME! ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK!

Step 3: Prior to entering into active repayment, you will want to review all of your repayment plan options for all of your loans. Your loan servicer(s) will provide you with these details, and you will ultimately select the apporpriate repayment plan(s) directly with your loan servicer(s). Typically, selecting the repayment plan(s) would occur during your 6 month grace.